


Fine

by conceptstage



Series: Single Chapter Critical Role [48]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Animals, Bad Parenting, Childhood, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 23:51:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18559645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conceptstage/pseuds/conceptstage
Summary: Beau overhears her mother talking to her friends and comes to a realization.Beauweek 2019 prompt fill for day one: Childhood & youth/ animals





	Fine

It’s the giggling that draws her attention first. Her mother never giggled. In Beau’s experience, she rarely even smiled. She paused on the stairs, wincing when it creaked under her weight when she moved to see through the banister but it didn’t seem to alert the three young women in the parlor.

“Oh, what I wouldn’t do for a daughter,” one of her mother’s friends was saying as she tapped her spoon on the edge of her teacup. “I’ve two sons with another on the way. What I wouldn’t give for a pretty little doll to dress up in my old clothes.”

Beau frowned and looked down at the fluffy gray heirloom dress her mother had given her to wear this morning. She wasn’t a doll. Mother, tell them she wasn’t a doll.

Her mother giggled and took a sip of her tea. “You can have mine if you like, she may as well be a boy herself. I had to wrestle her into a dress this morning and she keeps going through the clothes in the attic for my husband’s old slacks. Everytime I think I’ve confiscated them all from her, she comes running downstairs in a pair she cut into shorts. I still haven’t found the shears she’s using, I’ve no idea how a seven year old got her hands on them to start with.”

“What does she want with slacks?” the third woman asked, grabbing a scone and gently picking off the chocolate chips on top. “Her dresses are lovely.”

Her mother rolled her eyes and sat down her cup so that she could properly express her distaste by waving her hands. “Mother!” She said, in a mocking, high pitched voice. “I can’t run and play in these! There’s no pockets for me to put my worms and frogs! Yesterday, I found a salamander in her bathtub.”

Beau frowned. It wasn’t a salamander, it was a newt, thank you very much, and it was in the bathtub because it needed to stay wet. Beau was just glad her mother hadn’t found the injured baby bunny she’d been nursing back to health in the back of her closet. She’d released the bunny into the woods behind the house just two days before her mother found the newt and then started tearing apart the room for more secret creepy crawlies.

The first woman laughed delicately behind her hand. “You can keep her then. My boys do that enough as is.”

“Are you going to keep trying then?” The third woman asked.

Her mother sighed and sad expression came over her face. “We’ve been trying. It took us seven years of trying to have Beauregard. There must be something wrong with me. All the other women I know get pregnant so easily. On accident even, can you imagine?” She picked her cup back up and took a sip of her tea. “Well, in any case, we don’t intend to stop trying until we get the child we want.”

Beau frowned and started quietly crawling up the stairs, stopping at the top to sit on the first step. The words ‘child we want’ rung in her ears. She knew that her parents got angry at her a lot and they didn’t like that she didn’t want to wear dresses but it had never occurred to her that they didn’t want her at all.

Her tears surprised her, running down her cheeks and landing cold on her fingers. She sniffled and wiped furiously at her face until it was red and dry. 

Fine.

She stood up and stomped down the hall to her room.

Fine, if they weren't going to like her no matter how many dresses she wore, then she wasn’t going to wear any.

The threw open her closet and tore all the hangers down into a heap on the floor. She walked over to the loose floorboard near her bed and pried it up to pull out a pair of pants. She replaced the board and quickly changed.

Fine, if they were going to laugh about her behind her back, she wasn’t going to try and make them happy anymore.

She threw open her window and climbed out onto the roof. She started climbing down the trellis and then jumped off onto the ground with a huff. She started running towards the creek through the trees. 

Fine, if they didn’t think she could be good then she was going to be bad on purpose and her mother was gonna find a fish in the basin when she came in to pick out her clothes in the morning.

She told herself the wetness on her cheeks was sweat.

Fine.


End file.
